FedEx and DHL eye Hyderabad hub

INTEGRATORS FedEx and DHL are in talks with GMR Infrastructure to make Hyderabad Airport their potential regional hub in India.

Hyderabad is now the front-runner as India’s hub after the country’s civil aviation ministry’s plan to develop Nagpur as a cargo hub did not come to fruition since it was first identified in 2008.

The airport intends to create a dedicated express terminal that will allow companies to clear customs and move time-critical packages quickly.

Talks with the airlines are at a preliminary stage. A GMR team has visited FedEx’s Memphis hub in the US and another team is expected to visit DHL’s offices to study its feeder network.

“Given the geography and development diversity of India, we determined that we needed to be located close to major manufacturing hubs to effectively connect the country with our global network,” Kenneth Koval, vice-president (India), FedEx Express, commented.

Previously the company’s studies of the market revealed that Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai were the three nerve centres of the trade economy and it established three gateways in these locations.

Hyderabad Airport, which ranks number six in domestic and international cargo movement in the country, with Mumbai being the largest, has 1,000 acres of land that it can use for other commercial purposes.

India’s air cargo volumes grew 21.3 per cent in the first 11 months of 2010-11, with about 860,000 tonnes of domestic freight and 1.51 million tonnes of international freight, according to data from the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation.

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